During the past several years, different methods have been tried to improve the integrity of sapphire used in high pressure fluid and/or water jets. These high pressure fluid jets are used, for example, to cut stone, metal, leather, cloth, plastic and a whole range of other materials, both hard and soft, as well as to clean, blast and abrade various materials. Extremely high pressures may be used, and the sapphire fluid jet orifice may thus be subject to extreme conditions. Accordingly, the fluid jet orifices erode after time, and it has been a primary objective to obtain stronger and harder sapphire fluid jets which last longer. Methods which have been tried in the past include ion implantation, titanium mono-oxide treatment and annealing in various gas atmospheres.